


Seaside Park

by villacreek



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Confessions, First Kiss, M/M, fluffy sweet one shots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-08
Updated: 2018-03-08
Packaged: 2019-03-28 13:39:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13905177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/villacreek/pseuds/villacreek
Summary: Akira knows the perfect date— ahem, hangout spot, and he knows just who to visit it with, too.





	Seaside Park

**Author's Note:**

> i strongly believe that one day tatsuya suou is going to bust down atlus's doors and force them to let you confisocial link the dudes

_Ryuji Sakamoto [9:02 PM] > hey man! day off tomorrow, wanna hang out? _

_Ryuji Sakamoto [9:02 PM] > i’m gonna be bored as hell man i got no plans besides sleeping in…and it’s been a while _

 

_Akira Kurusu [9:05 PM] > Sure. I know a place. _

 

_Ryuji Sakamoto [9:06 PM] > forreal? somewhere we haven’t been?? _

 

_Akira Kurusu [9:06 PM] > Yeah. _

 

_Ryuji Sakamoto [9:07 PM] > dude sweet! don’t tell me where, i’ll meet you outside leblanc at like, 3? it’ll be a surprise _

_Ryuji Sakamoto [9:07 PM] > see ya man _

 

_Akira Kurusu [9:10 PM] > Goodnight. ❤️ _

 

As he lay in bed, Ryuji thought it best not to ask about the (somewhat cryptic?) heart emoji Akira had sent him…however, this resolve was not quite enough to stop him from thinking of the details.

A heart emoji? After asking him to hang out? At a new place? And to top it off, it took him, like, three minutes to send it. He had thought about it. Kind of for a while, because three minutes is a kinda long while when you’re laying in bed. Or was he just sleepy? Sleepy Akira, laying in bed, glasses off, in pajamas, what do his pajamas look like anyways I wonder if he sleeps without—

“Alright, we stop there,” exclaimed Ryuji aloud, to himself, alone in his room. He fought the fluttering feeling in his gut gallantly. Then he rolled over, shrouded in the covers, and forced his eyes closed against the reddish glow that had crept onto his cheeks.

 

* * *

 

The next day, Akira greeted his bleach-blonde friend with a gentle smile and a cosmopolitan tilt of the head. Ryuji shot him a cheerful grin and tried his very best not to picture him in pajamas.

 

“So where’re we headin’, leader?” inquired Ryuji curiously.

 

“To the station,” replied Akira, with ambiguity smooth as Ogikubo ramen broth.

 

“The station?”

 

“Yep.”

 

“And we’re gonna be traveling _from_ the station _to_ somewhere, right?” Ryuji griped playfully.

 

Akira shot him another smile. His untamed-yet-tamed hair was falling into his face in wisps. “But of course.”

 

Ryuji leaned forward as if he were going to respond, but Akira leapt to tack on another statement at the last minute. “You’re just gonna have to wait and see, Ryuji. Trust me,” he chortled as they neared the station, “you’re gonna love it.”

 

Ryuji chortled in reply, albeit a bit nervously compared to the confident lilt his raven friend harbored. There was no way he didn’t trust Akira’s judgment, though.

 

Wherever the hell they were headed, it was bound to be great.

 

* * *

 

“A-Akira, where the hell—”

 

Ryuji stuttered ridiculously upon reaching their destination. He hadn’t even realized they had arrived until Akira had remarked it, and he had almost spit out his sip of the dual-strawed Icee they were sharing. They had picked one up on the way, and he hadn't minded sharing at all at the time, but here?  _Here?_

This was Seaside Park. He recalled Akira showing the group the place when he had first read about it in a magazine, snickering at how it was described at a “mature date spot”. Maybe if he hadn’t known about that, or if he hadn’t known that _Akira_ had known about that, he’d be a little less shocked, but it _definitely_ would still be extremely low on his “Places I Expect Akira To Take Me” list.

 

“You were practically making fun of this place the other day!” yelped Ryuji, waving his free hand in the open air (whilst being precarious with his Icee-filled one).

 

“Yeah, so?” grinned Akira, gray eyes gleaming with delight. “The article I read was...interesting, but the sea here really is beautiful, isn’t it.”

 

The blonde let his eyes whip towards the water for a second. It gleamed a charming blue-green, and the sunlight reflected off of its ripples and undulations like the glow of Palace treasure. The scent and the ambiance it gave off was also captivating: there was that faint, strangely-appealing, fishy-salty scent in the air, and the gentle noise the waves gave off could put one at ease in seconds. “Huh,” he mumbled as these thoughts ran through his head.

Then his eyes snapped back. “B-B-But this is a **date spot**!” he retorted, sputtering once more. “A popular date spot! We’re just not gonna fit in here, man...there’s plenty of other places for us to go to hang out andwhatareyoudoingsoclose—”

 

Akira had sauntered over with that hands-in-pockets pose and leaned over to sip from his Icee straw with pursed, smug lips.

“Oh, relax. We’re sharing an Icee on a summer’s day,” he said, smirking slightly. “I think we’ll fit in just fine.”

 

For just a second after Akira had leaned back from his Icee endeavor, Ryuji found himself looking straight into the other boy’s bespectacled gaze. There was a slight glare on his plastic lenses, yet his eyes were warm.

 

“Plus,” Akira spoke, “the way you stutter makes you sound like a seal, if you want one less reason to worry—”

 

“Aww, shut up, man!” Ryuji groused, all the same letting a little bit of a grin seep onto his face. “...I guess I’m down, though. J-Just don't go wailing about how much we look like a couple!”

He added _that_ after seeing a certain mischievous glint in Akira’s eyes that was mildly familiar to him. Considering the circumstances, he didn’t quite consider that a good thing, but...Akira was a guy full of surprises.

Ryuji's smile widened a bit at that. Just another aspect of the other dude’s appeal, he thought fondly. And then they began to stroll along the park, the sea breeze softening the mood to cotton. In moments, Ryuji's self-consciousness had practically been washed away to sea.

 

 

They wandered around on the white brick walkway for a while, pandering to various food trucks and local vendors and chasing seagulls—Akira had remarked that he had found it childish at first, but it was clear after a while that he was enjoying the cool air and exercise that sprinting towards birds entailed. It shone in his eyes and the slight upturn of his lips when the two of them slowed to a stop in the wake of fleeing birds. Ryuji had grinned triumphantly upon noting such little details.

Before they knew it, the sun had started waning, and the blue-on-blue horizon was suddenly leaking peachy-gold, as if melted ice cream had spilled from the ocean up. They had considered heading towards the ferris wheel for a little bit, but they both decided that it was too much of a walk and that they were both a little bushed from the ambling and screwing around they’d partaken in on the walkway alone. After their brief deliberation they ended up sitting on a bench overlooking the sea and the ferris wheel they’d been eyeing, and as the blonde leaned back in his seat he was surprised that time had flown so quickly.

Between the two boys sat a paper shopping bag of sweets and a couple other knick knacks they had procured throughout the afternoon.

They chatted more as the sun set.

 

“...and it turned out to be rock salt. I paid one hundred _thousand_ yen for a ball of _salt_ , Ryuji.”

 

“No way! I didn’t know you were even into that kinda stuff, man, what the hell!” Ryuji’s laugh rang out across the expanse of the walkway shamelessly. His head was thrown back and the ocean breeze ran its tendrils through his hair like silk and he felt almost unnaturally at peace.

 

“I was curious,” Akira replied in remark to Ryuji’s cackling. “After all, how could I pass up a deal like _that_? Could’ve given me the power to steal hearts without the Metaverse.” He chuckled, amused at his own little joke.

 

Ryuji’s eyes glowed at the thought, though. “Man, imagine that,” he sighed, laughing again lightly. “Just give ‘em a snap and bam, change of heart.” His fingers snapped at his mention of “bam.”

 

“Bam,” murmured Akira, repeating the word.

 

“Yeah,” Ryuji agreed.

 

The ice cream in the sky had been wiped up and had left behind a smear of fiery red-orange. For a couple of gentle minutes, no exchange was made between the two boys: they simply savored the breeze, the sky, and each other’s company.

 

And then another murmur slipped from Akira’s lips. “I think you can touch people’s hearts without the Metaverse.”

 

“Mmh?” Ryuji mumbled. “What? That doesn’t make sense.”

 

“Not literally,” suggested Akira. “And you can’t…make such a severe change of heart, like we do by stealing Treasure.” He paused, eyes fluttering closed. His head tilted back a bit, almost endearingly.

“…It’s more like…well. It’s love. When someone makes your heart flutter and your face red, you’ve probably touched their heart. Right?”

 

Brief flashes of Ryuji’s experience curling up in his sheets like a lovesick middle schooler rushed through the blonde’s mind. “I mean, I guess,” he blurted out, slightly forcefully, trying his hardest not to stutter again like he had been doing before.

His eyes swooped over to Akira as he tried not to start blushing today, too, and he noticed that past the mop of curly black hair and big glasses his friend was harboring a bit of pink himself. He almost started to gape.

 

“I guess,” he repeated, softer, gentler. Ryuji rarely used such a tone at all.

 

“I’m sorry,” Akira replied, laughing quietly to himself as his eyes dropped to his lap. “That was odd, wasn’t it.”

 

“I- No! No, not…really. Nah.” Ryuji couldn’t articulate. The tension between them had seemed to raise substantially, but he felt as if it wasn’t so much tension but rather, just…just…

 

“Do you like me?” Ryuji blurted again. “I kind of- I get it, I just- I dunno—”

Yeah. It wasn’t so much tension, but more tension beat down to simply who the hell would just _ask that question_ . And he definitely had not expected it to be himself. But god, it had just slipped out! They were sitting in a popular date spot with the sunset’s glow on them and the ocean waves in the background, and Akira just looked so _good_ sitting there here, like that, and he recalled the heart emoji Akira had sent him last night and how he was thinking about how Akira looked in his pajamas, and god, he was thinking about it _again_ now, oh god, oh good lord, Akira, Akira, _Akira_ —

 

“I do. I…like you.” Akira's voice quivered slightly, and there it was.

 

And Ryuji…he didn’t…wasn’t surprised or shocked…and he found himself shifting in his seat, placing a hand on the wood of the bench as he turned to face Akira. His heart beat loudly and his face was scarlet, yet he found his eyes flicking towards the other boy’s lips and then up to his silvery eyes nervously.

 

Akira understood the blushy message. He too turned towards Ryuji, and slowly, very gently, leaned closer and brushed their lips together, his eyes fluttering closed. Ryuji’s own eyes snapped shut, and he closed the distance between them even more.

To be damn honest, neither of them had very much kissing experience. Well. Any kissing experience, really. Their lip lock was awkward and hesitant, but Akira’s lips were soft and Ryuji found himself smiling lightly against him before pulling away and sighing slightly, with content. For a moment after, their foreheads pressed together, and Ryuji felt the comforting softness of Akira’s hair before sitting back up to face the sea. Their legs pressed against the shopping bag between them.

 

“So I take it you like me back,” said Akira after a bout of soft silence. The corners of his lips were upturned again.

 

“Y-Yeah,” Ryuji affirmed, giggling a bit to himself. “Wow, I…wow.”

 

“Hmm?”

 

“You’re…soft, Akira.”

 

Akira laughed heartily. “You’re cute, Ryuji.”

 

They went back and forth with sappy compliments for a while while the sun dipped under the sea, and as they walked back to the station with their hands lightly intertwined, Ryuji hoped that they would have the chance to come here again.

It _was_ a popular date spot, after all. They’d definitely need to visit it on an actual date.

**Author's Note:**

> yusuke and goro coming soon to a theater near you


End file.
